Martial law anniversary

Dec 15, 2010

Marking the anniversary of the imposition of martial law on December 13, 1981 by the erstwhile communist regime POLSKA THE TIMES has an interview with Professor Antoni Dudek.


The noted historian from Jagiellonian University argues that the long quoted excuse by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the man directly responsible for the clampdown on the Solidarity movement, of choosing the lesser evil to save Poland from a certain Soviet military intervention is not valid. Professor Dudek recalls that official notes from the Russian Politbureau emergency meeting of the time indicate that the Kremlin was not all that eager to send an expedition force into Poland. After all, it would have been much easier to simply use the tested energy weapon of cutting gas and oil supplies for Poland. Especially that the extremely harsh winter of 1981 played into the hands of the Eastern Bloc rulers.


Come with us, the secessionists – is an article headline in GAZETA WYBORCZA. Former members of Law and Justice (PiS) have voiced the intention of setting up their own party. What started as a parliamentary club forming initiative of MPs relegated from the major opposition party or those who left it of their own will some five weeks ago, quickly gained bigger political aspirations. Leader of the Poland Most Important (PJN) movement, Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, is confident PM Tusk and his Civic Platform (PO) will finally encounter an opponent capable of subjecting them to an election defeat. The aim of the new party would be to rid Polish politics of negative emotions and excessive financial burdens, make them more local in character and family oriented, announced Kluzik-Rostkowska who entered a convention meeting held over the weekend in Warsaw to the tune of ‘You’re Simply The Best’.



RZECZPOSPOLITA heralds the annulment of Christmas holidays at home for a great majority of Poles working in the UK and Ireland. The reason is simple and painful – the omnipresent crisis. Social portals are full of announcements of those who had to give back their tickets and cancel travel reservations for the Yuletide season, due to job commitments and lack of available financial means. All still enjoying employment are ready for any sacrifice to hold on to their source of income. Job applications filed by the dozen at every workplace are a daily reinforcement for such motivation. Family and friends in Poland have to wait for better times to share the traditional Christmas wafer with their near and dear ones.


Meanwhile, as if in defiance of headaches experienced by their compatriots on the British Isles, more and more Poles are buying real estate in Bulgaria. DZIENNIK GAZETA PRAWNA reports that only in 2010 individual Polish investors purchased several thousand luxury apartments in prime tourist resorts. Prices of 65 thousand zloty for a 50 square meter studio, compared to ten times as much for a similar unit in one of the bigger Polish cities, are definitely a magnet. The rent is equally appealing: 5 euro per square meter… annually!

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